"I was just training him," Adrian said, trying to hide the huge sword behind his back. It was too late to change it back now.
Hagrid stared at the three-foot sword and his eye twitched. But when he looked around and didn't see any cuts on Norbert, he relaxed a bit.
Since there was no point hiding it anymore, Adrian waved his wand and turned the giant sword back into a broom. "Look, Hagrid, you're spoiling Norbert way too much. We need to discipline him, or he's going to destroy your whole house."
"Plus, we need to teach him how to hunt and fight through proper training," Adrian added.
"But... Norbert's just a baby. You'll scare him doing stuff like this," Hagrid said, unsure.
"Norbert, lie down!" Adrian suddenly commanded, showing off his training results.
After hours of practice, Norbert automatically obeyed and lay down. But then he realized Hagrid was back and quickly got up, hiding behind the big man while baring his teeth at Adrian.
The whole thing reminded Adrian of a guilty dog trying to act tough.
Hagrid watched Norbert's behavior with mixed feelings, happy to see progress, but sad like watching his kid grow up too fast.
"Maybe we should wait until Norbert gets bigger?" Hagrid asked quietly.
"If you want to keep raising Norbert, we need to train him now!" Adrian shook his head. No way was he waiting, Norbert would be impossible to handle if he got any bigger.
Adrian's words hit home because Hagrid knew he was right. Someone would discover Norbert soon if this kept up.
"Okay, but don't be too rough with him," Hagrid said sadly.
"Hagrid, if you have time, we could train him together," Adrian suggested.
With Hagrid's half-giant strength backing him up, Adrian wouldn't need magic spells to hold Norbert down during training. Hagrid's raw power would definitely make the dragon think twice about fighting back.
Hagrid remembered how Adrian had commanded Norbert earlier and felt interested. Sure, Norbert's destructive habits seemed lively and cute to him, but who wouldn't want a spirited but well-behaved pet?
"Well, I'll be patrolling the Forbidden Forest soon, so I'll only have evenings free," Hagrid said.
"The Forbidden Forest? Is something wrong out there?" Adrian's heart skipped a beat.
Hagrid hesitated, wondering if he should share this information. But Adrian kept asking, so he finally gave in.
"A unicorn was attacked..."
"Luckily, it got away and was only hurt. We're patrolling the forest to figure out what attacked it. Since they didn't succeed this time, they'll probably try again."
Hagrid's voice was grim, he couldn't imagine what evil thing would attack a holy unicorn.
Adrian went quiet. He knew perfectly well that Quirrell had attacked the unicorn, but he couldn't stop it.
He'd already tried reporting Quirrell with Harry and the others before, but Dumbledore clearly had no plans to deal with Quirrell yet. Reporting him again would just get the same result.
Adrian was starting to regret his decision to change the plot to avoid trouble, because now Hagrid, who went into the Forbidden Forest all the time, was probably in danger.
Not knowing about Adrian's worries, Hagrid just muttered curses at the attacker, then got excited talking about dragon training and care with Adrian.
Adrian pushed down his concerns and explained the training methods to Hagrid.
Norbert, thinking he'd found protection, shivered for no reason as he watched Hagrid's expression slowly change...
Over the next few days, what Adrian feared never happened. With Hagrid's help, Norbert lost his last bit of rebellion.
Hagrid also discovered he actually enjoyed training. He taught Norbert everything from lying down to rolling over to breathing fire on comman, all kinds of tricks were fun to work on.
This made a certain Norwegian Ridgeback, who was used to daily furniture destruction, sleeping, and lounging by the fireplace, very unhappy. He even felt unloved...
The only good thing left in his sad life was his daily grilled fish...
"Adrian, we can't keep doing this!"
In the quiet library, Hermione's slightly helpless voice suddenly rang out with hidden anger, getting attention from other students and even Mrs. Pince.
The young witch blushed and lowered her voice, "Exams are coming up! We should be studying now, not reading books that have nothing to do with our tests!"
"It's just an exam, do I really need to study? Isn't it kind of early?" Adrian put down his "Taming Fantastic Beasts" book and looked confused.
"It's not early at all! It's not that easy to get an Outstanding on the exam," Hermione said, getting more stressed as the test date got closer.
She'd spent time talking about dragon care methods with Adrian recently, but the past few days she'd been completely focused on reviewing.
"Especially my Transfiguration, compared to yours, Adrian, I'm still way behind. I can't imagine what would happen if I failed the Transfiguration exam. If I only got Exceeds Expectations, Professor McGonagall would be so disappointed..." Hermione said miserably.
Nearby, Harry and Ron, who were struggling to memorize important facts, looked up innocently. They had no idea what Adrian and Hermione were talking about. In their minds, as long as they didn't get Poor or Dreadful grades, they'd be fine.
Outstanding scores seemed completely out of reach...
"Hermione, your Transfiguration is actually really good. Lots of older students are only at your level. You'll have no problem getting high marks on the Transfiguration exam," Adrian said, closing his book.
His words didn't make Hermione feel better.
The last time Adrian had seen Hermione use Transfiguration, he'd roughly figured that her skill had reached Level 2, a level most third and fourth-year students reached.
Even if Professor McGonagall was particularly tough, she wouldn't hold back an Outstanding grade.